WSCV
WSCV, virtual channel 51 (UHF digital channel 30), is a Telemundo owned-and-operated television station serving Miami, Florida, United States that is licensed to Fort Lauderdale. It is one of two East Coast flagship stations of the Spanish-language network (the other being WNJU in the New York City market). WSCV is owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations subsidiary of NBCUniversal (itself a subsidiary of Comcast), as part of a duopoly with Miami-licensed NBC owned-and-operated station WTVJ (channel 6). The two stations share studio and office facilities on Southwest 27th Street (off I-75) in Miramar; WSCV's transmitter is located near Hard Rock Stadium in north Miami-Dade County. WSCV is one of two commercial television stations with a city of license in Broward County (the other being UniMás flagship WAMI-DT, channel 69, licensed to Hollywood). The station also serves as the de facto Telemundo outlet for the West Palm Beach market. History The UHF channel 51 allocation in the Miami–Fort Lauderdale market was previously occupied by WSMS-TV, an independent station that debuted on December 6, 1968, under the ownership of Gold Coast Telecasting; the station would cease operations on August 10, 1970, due to financial issues. The current station on channel 51 was developed after another companywho? acquired the channel 51 license in January 1972. WSCV first signed on the air on February 14, 1972, as WKID-TV. Operating as an independent station, it maintained a bilingual format featuring a mix of English- and Spanish-language programming. The station would later be acquired by an investment group headed by William F. Johns and Alvin Koenig in 1976, after WKID's previous owners went bankrupt. During the late 1970s, WKID aired Spanish-language programming during the daytime and a slate of older English-language films and sitcoms during the overnight hours. With all other Miami-area stations having signed off the air during the overnight hours, WKID's late-night programming reached cult status among South Florida residents who stayed up at night. Dubbed The All Night Show, WKID's late-night block consisted of a mix of films, television series, music videos and classic cartoons, along with special guests. The All Night Show was hosted by Dave Dixon, an icon from that era of South Florida UHF television. The All Night Show is believed to have served as the inspiration for USA Network's similar late-night block, Night Flight. During this era, cable providers that carried competing independent WCIX (channel 6, now CBS owned-and-operated station WFOR-TV on channel 4) outside of the Miami market (especially in the Tampa and Orlando markets) carried WKID during the overnight hours, after WCIX signed off for the night. WKID-TV was also the first affiliate of sorts for what would become the Christian Television Network, as the network purchased a block of evening airtime every night on channel 51 prior the establishment of its first station, WCLF in Tampa. In 1980, the group sold WKID to Oak Industries, a cable television equipment manufacturer and owner of ONTV, a subscription television service that was carried during the evening hours, which could only be viewed for a monthly fee, and required a set-top decoder box and outdoor antenna for adequate reception. The station's programming during this period included business news programming from the Financial News Network during the daytime hours and a horse racing show hosted by Bob Savage in the early evening. The ONTV subscription service programming commenced at 6 p.m. (EST) Monday through Friday and at 10 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. With the expansion of cable television in the Miami area, ONTV proved to be an ill-fated venture and was dropped by WKID-TV in 1985. Julio Rumbaut, a Cuban-American media entrepreneur, led the acquisition and operations of the station by Blair Broadcasting (under its BlairSpan subsidiary), which changed the station's callsign to WSCV (its call letters, when pronounced in Spanish read "Doble-U Ese Se Ve," which is translated into English as "that one is seen"); the station switched to a Spanish-language programming format in the spring of 1985 with WSCV positioning its programming as a local, independent Miami-targeted alternative to the Spanish International Network (now Univision) affiliate WLTV (channel 23). Julio Rumbaut, president of Telemundo of Florida, led WSCV as a catalyst and one of the flagship stations of NetSpan in 1986. The Reliance Group, then owners of NetSpan, acquired WSCV and Blair's other Spanish-language stations, as well as WNJU in New York City, KVEA in Los Angeles and WKAQ-TV in San Juan, Puerto Rico and used them to relaunch the network as Telemundo in 1987. On October 11, 2001, NBC acquired the Telemundo network, including WSCV, from Sony and Liberty Media for $1.98 billion (increasing to $2.7 billion by the sale's closure) and the assumption of $700 million in debt, in an equal cash and stock split by NBC's then-parent General Electric. The acquisition was finalized on April 12, 2002, making WSCV part of a duopoly with NBC's existing O&O WTVJ. Category:Telemundo affiliated stations Category:Channel 51 Category:Miami Category:Fort Lauderdale Category:Florida Category:Former independent stations Category:Former NetSpan affiliates Category:Former ONTV affiliates Category:Former Financial News Network affiliates Category:1968 Category:Television channels and stations established in 1968 Category:NBCUniversal Category:UHF Category:Florida Spanish Stations